In Search of Jane Austen

Abstract

Along with Shakespeare, Jane Austen (1775–1817) can be said to be the most widely studied author in the history of English literature. But unlike Shakespeare’s, her language has received little scholarly attention. This is especially true for the language of her letters. Jane Austen’s letters have been described as the equivalent of telephone conversations, and if you read them, you can almost hear her speak. The letters therefore take us as close to the spoken language of the period as you might hope to get. This study, for the first time, offers a detailed sociolinguistic account of all aspects of the language of her letters: spelling, vocabulary, and grammar. It also produces some evidence of pronunciation as well as of local dialect usage. The analysis shows Jane Austen to be rather idiosyncratic in her language use: she was consistent (if unusual) in her spelling preferences, not very innovative in her vocabulary, and not quite representative of grammatical developments of the times (though her usage differed depending on who she wrote to—her sister, her publisher, or her nieces and nephews). This study of Jane Austen’s private language use shows how she varied in her language use, just like all of us do today. It provides evidence both for a linguistic date for her unfinished novel The Watsons and for the interplay there must have been between the editors of her novels and her own linguistic preferences, in the field of spelling and otherwise.

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